Overview

Bestselling author and illustrator Pamela Duncan Edwards and illustrator Daniel Kirk take you on a flight across the night to see what happens in nature . . . while the world is sleeping.

Bestselling author and illustrator Pamela Duncan Edwards and illustrator Daniel Kirk take you on a flight across the night to see what happens in nature . . . while the world is sleeping. Spend the the night on an exploration with foxes, porcupines, raccoons,...

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Overview

Bestselling author and illustrator Pamela Duncan Edwards and illustrator Daniel Kirk take you on a flight across the night to see what happens in nature . . . while the world is sleeping.

Bestselling author and illustrator Pamela Duncan Edwards and illustrator Daniel Kirk take you on a flight across the night to see what happens in nature . . . while the world is sleeping.
Spend the the night on an exploration with foxes, porcupines, raccoons, fish, mice, and more as their day begins while the rest of the world is fast asleep. Fly across the night on a snow owl as you glide over meadows, lakes, forests, and rivers with only the moon to light the way.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

“Come little sleepyhead, come with me,/ I've left my hole high in the tree./ Oh, what wondrous things we'll see,/ While the world is sleeping.” Edwards (Dinosaur Starts School) issues readers this lyrical invitation as an enormous white owl swoops toward a lit bedroom window, where a child climbs onto its back for a moonlit tour of the countryside. With fluid rhyme and a calming cadence, the verse chronicles the nighttime habits of various animals. Deer frolic, rabbits play, beavers build a dam, and a raccoon eyes tempting garbage cans. (Though deer and rabbits are more active at twilight than at midnight, readers are no more likely to be bothered by this than by a giant owl offering nocturnal rides to children.) Kirk's (Library Mouse) luminescent, finely detailed gouache paintings give the animals hyperreal cuteness; their gleaming eyes have more than a hint of personification. The art also offers entertaining background diversions, as animals make surprise return appearances. This satisfying lullaby is a pleasure for ears and eyes. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)

Children's Literature
- Claudia Mills

A little child (of pleasantly uncertain gender) is no sooner tucked safely into bed than an enormous owl appears at the window, with the invitation to "climb aboard" for a journey "through the night/While the world is sleeping." Riding upon the owl's back, the child flies all night long to observe the lively nocturnal activities of deer, fish, foxes, rabbits, beavers, porcupines, mice, raccoons, rats, and bats. Then the child returns home, to a darkened house with one wonderfully lit window, awaiting his/her own chance to sleep. Some young readers might find the gigantic owl at the window (face vastly larger than the window itself) grotesque and frightening rather than alluring; most will likely welcome the chance to fly through the darkness to explore a world that turns out to be anything but sleeping. The design of the book is somewhat odd, with text integrated into the illustrations on some pages, but appearing in a clunky, distracting box on others. The overall effect of the book is unsettling: humans made to seem at odds with the rest of the animal world, sleeping only as they begin to wake, waking only as they begin to sleep. But Edwards and Kirk effectively communicate the message that there is a whole other world out there, a world of which most of us know nothing, a world of which we get a few tantalizing and magical glimpses. Reviewer: Claudia Mills, Ph.D.

School Library Journal

PreS-K—A huge, round-headed, furry-footed snowy owl peers into a young girl's window and invites her on a nighttime ride. ("Oh, what wondrous things we'll see/While the world is sleeping.") That line completes the lilting rhyme on each page, adding a lulling, comforting tone to the poetic text. Off the child and the owl fly, over frolicking fawns, swimming fish, playing rabbits, dam-building beavers, and other denizens of the night, returning home, at last, to sleep. The final painting shows the child stretching awake in her bed at sunrise. Kirk's bold gouache paintings fill every inch of each scene with eye-catching realistic detail, highlighted by the light of the full Moon. Many of the animals, especially the cat-faced fox; the sweet-faced porcupine clinging in childlike fashion to a tree branch; and the rounded, soft-furred, innocent-faced raccoon have a friendly, nonthreatening look about them. There is strong detail in leaves and shrubbery, pinecones, tree bark, animal fur, owl feathers, and porcupine quills. A reassuring bedtime poem, as well as a lovely introduction to nocturnal animals.—Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

Kirkus Reviews

A giant snowy owl pays a visit to a young child, introducing him/her to some nocturnal animals. The child clings to the owl's back while they visit river, meadow, farmyard, stream and woods. "In the woods, a porcupine, / Rattles quills to send a sign, / Don't come near, this food is mine! / While the world is sleeping." With the exception of two, the rhymes work well and, with its repetitive phrasing, this would make for a good read-aloud in group settings. While most of the creatures are in fact nocturnal, Edwards includes deer and rabbits, which are crepuscular. The ending leaves open for readers the opportunity to have an adventure of their own-a stuffed owl on the bed suggests the power of imagination. Kirk's sharp-edged gouache artwork stops short of pure realism, rounding the animals a bit to suit a younger audience (though the fox's pop eyes look downright sinister). At the same time, children are given an extreme close-up view of most. Muted colors enhance the nocturnal theme. An imaginative look at nighttime nature. (Picture book. 4-7)

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Meet the Author

Daniel Kirk is the author and/or illustrator of many children's books, including DINOSAUR, DINOSAUR, CHUGGA-CHUGGA CHOO-CHOO, LIBRARY MOUSE, DOGS RULE! and CAT POWER. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children.

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